Be prepared ... More than one in two young-to-middle-aged adults are flouting expert warnings by choosing not to vaccinate against influenza.Source: News Corp Australia

The findings come after the study authors fought for years before they were finally given access to 45 unpublished studies run by drug company Roche, the manufacturer of the drug.

Other evidence published this week in PLOS Pathogens shows many versions of the flu are developing resistance to the drug and that the H1N1 flu virus already spreading in Australia is just one mutation away from becoming resistant to the drug.

The US has spent more than $1.3 billion stockpiling the medicines, the UK government 424 million pounds and the Australian government currently has a stockpile worth $192 million.

The British Medical Journal, which published the study, and the Cochrane Collaboration, which conducted it, yesterday issued a joint call to governments and policy makes to reconsider their stockpiles.

“In the light of the latest findings from the Cochrane Review, would you make the same recommendations today, choosing to stockpile Tamiflu?” they ask.

But Australian and British flu experts have warned Tamiflu and another drug Relenza are the only two medicines we have in the event of a flu pandemic and dismissing them should be done with great caution.

The Cochrane study did find when Tamiflu was used as a preventive treatment if could reduce the risk of people suffering symptomatic influenza.

However, it found no proof it stopped people carrying the virus and spreading it.

Dr Alan Hampson, from the Influenza Specialists Group, said in the early months of a flu pandemic Tamiflu and Relenza were the only drugs governments could give health workers to protect them from the spread of the virus.

It takes up to three months to develop a vaccine to the point it can be injected into the population and in that period there was nothing else available to fight the pandemic, he said.

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